Geography: Vesuvan Archipelago
The Vesuvan Archipelago is a small archipelago off the northwestern coast of Ashkar, on Adnez.
Vesuvan Archipelago
- "It's everywhere you've ever been."
A singular description of the Vesuvan Archipelago is impossible to find; every account of their appearance differs. The only similarities between accounts is a rough size of the islands, a very general description of the landscape (forests, mountains, rivers), and a rough layout of the singular city, Vesuva, located on the largest island. Even descriptions of the local flora and fauna differ, with descriptions varying wildly.
Even the vesuvans, natives to the archipelago, are unable - or unwilling - to give a "true" account of the islands' appearances. It is believed that only those born on the islands have a glimpse of the truth of their appearance, and that it is this effect that gave rise to their racial nesting instinct to return to them to bear their young. Given that vesuvans born abroad give just as confused accounts regarding the islands as members of other races, this would seem to be a credible theory.
There is some evidence to suggest that the truth of the Vesuvan Archipelago is always reflected in the waters surrounding them; in particular, one individual who saw the city as being in ruins claims to have seen the city in its full splendor reflected in the water. The reason for this "true reflection" effect is unknown.
The Vesuvan Archipelago is intrinsically Blue-aligned; even those with minor Time or Chaos force alignments spark upon coming near the islands.
Geography
The archipelago consists of two smaller islands, and one larger island, which is home to the city of Vesuva. Altogether, the islands have a land area of roughly 120 square miles. The largest of the islands is simply called Vesuva, as the city largely takes up the entirety of the island; the smaller of the islands is called Kilanda, and the third is called Lynari.
The terrain on the islands is relatively diverse. Kilanda is home to an active volcano, while Lynari has varied terrain, with a forest, a plains, and a single mountain, called Mount Vellenge. The precise qualities of these terrain features, however, varies wildly from account to account: some describe the plains of Lynari as green and gently-rolling, while others describe it as a desolate scrubland, subject to frequent lightning storms.
Climate
The weather of the archipelago is fairly regular, with fairly hot summers and mild winters. The current that passes through the archipelago is a mixture of the cold water from the Northlandic Current, and waters brought north from the equator by the Great Storm Current, thus maintaining a fairly level temperature. Lightning storms, however, are fairly common, though this is a known phenomenon for islands in the Northlander Ocean.
Due to the temperate nature of the surrounding waters, the archipelago does not usually suffer from any harsh weather. However, roughly once per decade, the winds interact with the ocean current to produce a monsoon, called the Yohno·t, which gives rise to aquatic cyclones.
In addition, at indeterminate intervals, the wind blows just right while the volcano on Kilanda is particularly active, and the other islands suffer from a few days' worth of ash rain, called kahuwe·yá·.
Flora and Fauna
The vesuvans are known to be a native race to the archipelago, and are believed to be the only native sentients.
In terms of creatures and plants, what little testing of local life has been allowed has generally revealed that - regardless of what an individual researcher may think a sample appears to be - almost all the plants are identical at a genetic level, as are the animals.
As such, the flora and fauna of the archipelago were given their own taxonomies: the animal life of the islands are referred to as tehoténi (the Vesuvan word for "change"), and the plants are known as lotatatu·ní (the Vesuvan word for "disguise"). It is believed that these creatures possess, on a limited level, the same sort of shapechange capability as the vesuvans themselves.
